Polish Briefing: A part of North-South Corridor finished. Three Seas Initiative concerns energy

What goes on in Poland on the 13th of September.

Gaz-System finished construction of a part of North-South Corridor

Gaz-System finished construction of a pipeline Czeszów-Wierzchowice. Along with other pipelines that are being built in Lower Silesia, this pipeline will enable transporting larger volumes of gas from the north to the south of Poland.

The pipeline is 14 kilometers long and is located in Zawonia and Krośnice communities. It is a part of western line of the North-South gas corridor which will enable a full integration of infrastructure in this part of Europe. The whole investment is worth PLN 91 million ($ 23 million). European Commission placed the North-South gas corridor on the list of key European Union projects. There are five more Gaz-System’s projects on the list: Poland-Lithuania connection, Baltic Pipe, expansion of LNG terminal in Świnoujście, expansion of exit points from Yamal Pipeline and Poland-Slovakia connection. Giving those projects such a status proves that development of gas infrastructure in Europe is treated notably seriously.

Nord Stream 2 is blocking European Council’s works

As BiznesAlert.pl informed, a working group session, on which the European Commission was supposed to present its view on the proposition to give it a mandate to negotiate the legal status of a controversial project Nord Stream 2 with Russia should have taken place on 14th of September. This can be given by the Council who would decide whether the mandate should be „hard” – demanding of Russians, for instance by calling for a full implementation of EU law towards the investment, or „soft” – taking concessions to Russia’s benefit into account.

Unfortunately, because European Council’s legal services had not prepared the statement before the meeting, its agenda was depleted by the Nord Stream 2 plot. A new date of talks on this topic is yet to be passed on.

Despite that, a debate about Nord Stream 2 including members of the European Commission will take place in the European Parliament.

Jakóbik: Presidential Three Seas concept concerning energy

The Three Seas concept concerns cooperation among Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea states on the field of energy. It is associated with Piłsudski’s concept, but it concerns a common gas infrastructure. What is the presidential concept?

– This concept arises mainly thanks to support of the European Commission and this effort to develop energy infrastructure is an idea for cooperation which fails on other fields – says Wojciech Jakóbik BiznesAlert.pl’s editor in chief. – It needs to be built step by step.